Bugatti 100P - Special Hobby 1/72nd scale

 

Special Hobby treated us to a kit of a splendid, absolutely beautiful, futuristic plane of 1938, a civil racer. For this they should be congratulated. The kit offers beautiful panel lines, very nice detail, in general clean molds, additional resin parts and mostly fair instructions (with the usual couple of obscure points). But the complex, flowing lines of the design seem to have presented a challenge to the manufacturer, as some strange engineering and a few fit problems make of this a not particularly easy build. The kit includes resin parts that, even when well-cast and meant to help (and they do), introduce some issues of their own. A few small parts should have been better rendered as photo-etched items, as in plastic they look a bit chunky. The kit provides a full, detailed interior, although a couple of shapes are a bit simplified. Still, a modeler with some experience will surely be able to overcome a few hurdles and produce a nice replica. The very beautiful transparency is one of the highlights of the kit, although the manufacturer makes you buy the masks separately -at an additional cost, naturally.

If you put a little effort, you will have an outstanding replica of an incredibly "modern" 1938 plane. A tribute to Ettore Bugatti no doubt, but much more to the generally ignored (and unknown to most) designer Louis de Monge. Regarding De Monge designs, stay tuned as I am working on a scratch of an inaccurately-called "flying wing" design of his, the De Monge 7.5.

Well done on the subject choice, Special Hobby! More of these please!

My thanks to Mr. Christos Psarras and his unsinkable dogs for pointing out to valuable reference material.

For an in-deep exploration of the build and some historical background, please refer to the step-by-step building post:

https://wingsofintent.blogspot.com/2022/07/bugatti-100p-special-hobby-172nd.html

 

Here with the 42 years old sister kit, the simpler but still standing proud Guano Works Projekt Models rendition. You may see the old kit post here:

https://wingsofintent.blogspot.com/2022/08/the-other-bugatti-100p-from-guano-works.html